


the way it Ends (break all the rules)

by Narci



Series: See the Forest, Not Just the Trees [12]
Category: Mo Dao Zu Shi, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: Angst, Burial Mounds, Family, Fluff, Kisses, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Soft Lan Wangji, but def not to the level of canon, im not gonna do a warning, just FYI, no beta we die like lan zhan's self control, some blood and tears, soooooooooo, wei ying's secretly a troll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26877493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narci/pseuds/Narci
Summary: Wangji is a Lan. He knows and follows the rules. All 3000+ of them. Demonic Cultivation is clearly a violation of those rules, and yet… Wangji doesn’t want to punish Wei Ying, he just wants to protect him.-/-character study of wwx by lwj
Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Series: See the Forest, Not Just the Trees [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915600
Comments: 12
Kudos: 130





	1. the way it Ends

_"I used to think of you as my soulmate.”_

_“I still am.”_

-/-

The three months Wangji spends looking for Wei Ying are the most painful months he has ever lived through; worse even, than when his mother died. Wei Ying’s absence is a knife to Wangji’s soul and the not knowing a cruel hand ready to twist it further and further whenever he gives himself time to rest and think.

Wangji has, consequently, also never spent so long without sleeping or meditating. Xichen seems worried whenever Wangji sees him, but the Sect Leader looks almost as bad as he does, so Wangji doesn’t think his brother has any room to lecture.

-/-

Lan Wangji feels deeply, just like his father; regulates himself extremely strictly, just like his uncle; never lets injustice pass, just like his brother.

When those three integral pieces of Wangji’s personality fall into conflict, he becomes lost. 

Never has he felt more lost than this exact moment, staring Wei Ying in the eyes, feeling resentful energy flickering in the air around them. 

“Come to Gusu with me,” Wangji begs. If Wangji can bring Wei Ying to Gusu, he can help him. His closed-off nature prevents him from saying more, and Wangji hates it, even though he has no idea what else he would say even if he were the talking sort. What words can possibly express all that Wangji feels right now?

So, he just repeats, “Come to Gusu.”

Wei Ying refuses.

-/-

Self control. Self regulation. Self Control. SELF CONTROL.

_‘Control yourself, Wangji!’_

Wangji feels the burning, tearing pain of his back. Xichen stands at the door while relaying the news.

_‘Wei Ying. Wei Ying is… dead?’_

But, but if Wei Ying is dead, what was it all for? Why has Wangji been fighting to control himself if it doesn’t stop anything? Maybe, if Wangji had just been more unrestrained, Wei Ying would have trusted him. Maybe, they could have run away together. 

Maybe… Wangji should’ve been asking Wei Ying ‘do you want to escape with me?’ all along.

If having impeccable self control only gets him this (this pain and loneliness, the aching and longing), why has Wangji prioritized it above all else?

Xichen looks shocked when he jumps up from his bed in the Jingshi, but Wangji doesn’t care anymore. No one’s opinion matters anymore. Not if caring about others’ opinions only causes Wangji to lose the things he cares about above all else.

_If Wei Ying is dead, what’s happened to the Wens? What about A-Yuan?_

Wangji might have watched from his carefully crafted personal prison of regulations as his- _his soulmate died_. But he wouldn’t just sit here and make the same mistake again and again. If anyone survived the siege, Lan Wangji would save them, and if no one was there when he arrived, maybe he would stay there. For good.

He could leave the living plane in exactly the same place Wei Ying did.

Wangji climbs onto Bichen, and he’s gone before Xichen can protest.

-/-

The Burial Mounds are soaked in resentment. That is not surprising to Lan Wangji. The Burial Mounds used to be widely considered an entirely inhospitable place precisely because of the choking layers of resentment. 

But Wei Ying had changed that, Wangji thinks as he closes his eyes and sits down on the blood soaked earth. Around a hundred non-cultivators once lived here without any permanent effects to their health. Wei Ying was cleansing the resentment constantly just by virtue of existing here, and now that he’s gone, the Burial Mounds are just reverting to their original state.

Wangji thinks it’s incredibly tragic that even Yiling is going to forget all the good Wei Ying has done for it. Wei Ying deserves more than being forgotten.

Wangji pulls out his guqin and begins playing Inquiry as naturally as he ever does. Now though, it has a new meaning. Inquiry might be Wangji’s last chance to speak to Wei Ying.

He strums the beginning notes gently and then waits. Nothing happens. No chords are plucked in response. 

Wangji plays the notes again. Silence. 

Once more, he plays them. The resentment seeps into his soul just as he knows he should never let it. The ringing silence tries to push his fingers off the strings of his qin, it tries pushing him down and down. 

Wangji curls over his spiritual instrument in desperation. He plays Inquiry until his fingers bleed. Nothing changes. There’s no response. Wangji opens his eyes and stares at the red droplets collecting on thinning chords. 

_It's useless._ Inquiry doesn’t work if there is no spirit to respond. Wangji is just playing to a nameless mass of resentment that would rather kill him then play back. He knows all of that, but it doesn’t make sense to him anymore. Why has Wangji gone through years of practice and training? Why has Wangji dedicated himself to a cultivation method that doesn’t ever seem to help him?

Wei Ying is dead. His body is destroyed. Wangji can’t honor him. He can’t help Wei Ying pass on. He can’t do anything now just as he couldn’t do anything then. 

Blood is seeping from the wounds on his back and his hands, but Wangji doesn’t care.

If the best person he’s ever known doesn’t have a place in this world, then what claim does Wangji have to his?

_Death is better than life without meaning. Without Wei Ying._

Tears mix in with the blood on his qin, Wangji reaches out to rip off the strings that are just as useless as he is, but then… there’s a warm touch near his fingers. A short caress of the instrument Wangji mastered long ago. 

_“Over there,”_ it says. _“It’s not over just yet. This isn’t the way it ends.”_

Lan Wangji can’t tell who it is that finally decided to respond, but he listens to it immediately. His body aches with every movement, but he keeps going. 

He walks until the notes trail off, and Wangji is faced with a large tree. Clearly, the tree is dead, and it must’ve died long ago for it to look the way it does now. Why can he feel the strumming of life inside it then?

His eyes widen as an errant laugh ghosts through the air. 

_Of course_ , he thinks as he pulls the child from his hiding place. _Wei Ying would never let them kill A-Yuan._


	2. break all the rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wangji will never stop Wei Ying from having something he wants. Not now. Not ever again. 

Lan Wangji is, of course, a Lan. Though he no longer follows the sleep at ten rule, he still rises at five (unless alcohol is involved). There is a certain joy in waking up long before his husband does. Wei Ying is beautiful when he sleeps. Wangji doesn’t care that Wei Ying isn’t in his original body anymore, Wei Ying is still Wei Ying, and every Wei Ying is beautiful, especially when peacefully resting in _their_ bed with marks littered across his skin. 

Wangji pulls his husband closer and pulls the lock of black hair from its place between Wei Ying’s lips. The hair is damp and so are his lips. Wangji leans in and kisses him softly, careful not to wake him. Wei Ying will surely be tired from last night, and Wangji will never stop Wei Ying from having something he wants. Not now. Not ever again. 

Sometimes, before Wangji leaves their bed to either make breakfast or complete his duties as the Chief Cultivator, he thinks back on the thirteen years he spent without Wei Ying. Wangji thinks about the possibilities. The many alternate endings to the tale of tragedy leading up to their confessions in Guanyin Temple. The infinite amount of ways everything could’ve gone wrong once again. The thoughts scare him more than anything. 

What if one day, Wangji wakes up, and everything was a dream? What if Mo Xuanyu hadn’t been able to complete the ritual? What if Wangji had to live on without Wei Ying for the rest of his days? He couldn’t. 

“Wei Ying,” he whispers quietly, lightly caressing the curve of the other’s cheek.

-x-

When Lan Wangji first saw Wei Wuxian, he fell in love. When his sword first crossed with the Yunmeng disciple’s, he fell even further. When Wei Wuxian was kicked out of class within the first week of being a guest disciple, Lan Wangji knew he would never be the same again.

Wei Wuxian became Wei Ying so very easily.

But Lan Wangji is a Lan, and the rules do not allow him to foster such an emotion for such a person as Wei Ying.

-/-

Wei. Ying. Wei Ying… he touched Wangji’s ribbon! He! He pulled it right off Wangji’s head. 

Wangji freezes for a single second before the panic and anger set in. He glares at Wei Ying even though he knows Wei Ying doesn’t understand the meaning of the ribbon. He breaks his bow without a thought and leaves the competition grounds just as mechanically.

The rules are clear. Family are the only ones allowed to touch one’s ribbon. Family… and lovers. Wei Ying is not his lover. Not now, possibly not ever. And yet, Wei Ying touched _Wangji’s ribbon_. Maybe that’s the reason why the whole situation hurts as much as it does. 

-/-

In the caves of Qishan, in the clutches of the Wen and the Xuanwu, Lan Wangji stares death in the eyes with whom he knows to be his soulmate by his side. Wangji has never felt love or terror as strongly as he does in the days they spend huddled together next to the underground lake stained with blood.

When the head of the Xuanwu is ripped from its body, and they know it to be dead, Wangji and Wei Ying are nearly dead themselves, but they have done it. They’ve defeated the Xuanwu. Of course, Wangji thinks as he hums WangXian for the nearly unconscious teen in his lap, with Wei Ying by his side, they can do anything. What is a tortoise of slaughter when compared to their combined force?

-/-

They are rescued by Jin Zixuan and Jiang Wanyin. Wangji wants more than anything else to go with Wei Ying. Back to Lotus Pier. To Cloud Recesses, even Lanling or Qinghe. Anywhere, as long as Wangji is by his soulmate’s side. 

But Wangji is a Lan. He cannot let his clan suffer because of his selfish desires. He must return to the Cloud Recesses, and Wei Ying must go to his clan as well. 

-/-

_Those days in the cave are paradise compared to what happens after Wangji decides to let Wei Ying go without him._

-x-

Wei Ying stirs beneath his fingers, and Wangji pulls away. The action is useless though because Wei Ying’s head follows after the retracting hand in the search of warmth. Wei Ying isn’t even up, Wangji thinks, and he’s already acting spoiled. The thought brings a satisfied smile to Wangji’s face. Wei Ying deserves to be spoiled. Wangji will gladly spend the rest of his life spoiling Wei Ying if the gods allow.

Usually, Wei Ying sleeps like the dead (ha, not funny), but today, he can sense Wangji’s gaze on him, more melancholy than usual, and so he slowly begins to wake. Wangji is lucky for every second he spends in Wei Ying’s presence. Wangji is lucky for every second he is loved by Wei Ying.

So many things could’ve happened differently, and they’ve already been through so much. 

Sometimes, it seems like the fates are against them, and yet, Wangji will only love Wei Ying more.

“Me too,” mumbles Wei Ying as he blearily blinks up at his husband.

“Hm?”

Wei Ying giggles as he pushes his face into Wangji’s neck, “I’ll also only love you more, Lan Er-gege.” 

Wangji feels the smile against his skin and tightens the arm he has around his husband’s waist. Everything he has, everything he’s always wanted and momentarily let slip through his fingers, is worth breaking some rules.

For Wei Ying, for A-Yuan, and everything the three of them have built together, Lan Wangji would break all of the rules. Nothing will stop Wangji from protecting what he loves. Never again.

Wei Ying pulls his head back and meets Wangji’s eyes. He blinks as if expecting something to happen. When Wangji doesn’t move, he says, “Aiyah? Husband? Aren’t you going to feed me?”

And Wangji feels Wei Ying’s smile once more, but this time, it isn’t on his neck.

fin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, real talk. 
> 
> i am so sorry for how long this took. i surely have excuses like college apps and DL difficulties, but tbh, i just wasn't ready for the second half of lwj's part. i put it off over and over, and eventually, i just made it last. i had hoped that something would come to me before i had all of the other characters done, but it didn't. 
> 
> and then i just had a blinking cursor on a white screen w/ no distractions. 
> 
> so yeah, this part fought me. but today, i sat down, and wrote it. i just typed whatever i thought and kept whatever i liked. i haven't even read through this a second time, so it's entirely unedited. sry folks.
> 
> with this done, i only have the last part! woo-hoo!
> 
> i hope to be done w/ the series soon b/c i have a one shot planned to release on christmas, but i'm only gonna work on it once this is DONE.
> 
> thanks for your patience y'all! i appreciate every single one of you readers, and you're the only reason i got this done <3


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